Rocktagon

iTrader: (1)

Did a burnout a spun the car around once, during this I hit the rev-limiter a couple times which is something I've hardly done in this car and usually try not to, whoops. 1 Day later a lovely ticking noise suddenly shows up. Great. Is it possible I collapsed a lifter during that? I've dealt with chewed up lifters but not collapsed ones.
2 years ago I replaced all the lifters, cam, springs + had a valve job with new seals because I had a bad lifter which was pitted as hell and killed the cam. That all happened because the oil pump went out. Since then I've had no oil pressure issues or noises or anything else so I have a hard time believing the surfaces to be worn on any of these parts.
Today I pulled the Passenger Valve cover and noticed a rocker arm that had a lot of play in it. While at zero lash there is about an 1/8in. gap between the rocker arm and the top of the valve. I can fit a screwdriver tip in this gap! The rest of the rocker arms are still snug and this one used to be.. These things just don't change over time, it has to be a lifter right??? And the gap between these parts could create that amount of noise??

vettenuts

iTrader: (4)

Check the pushrod first to see if it is bent.

KissMyTushZ28

iTrader: (4)

Would just bouncing off the limiter a couple times actually damage the valvetrain like this? I hit the limiter a few different times in my Camaro but I didn't continuously bounce off of the limiter each time. Just bumped it. I haven't even gotten over 4500RPM on my T/A yet.

chevybayboy

iTrader: (6)

I hit the rev limiter after heads and lts install and the next day my lifter was destroyed

Rocktagon

iTrader: (1)

I did check the pushrod and its as straight as an arrow. Sucks cuz I was hoping it would be that. And I did roll it on a flat surface. I'm just trying to avoid removing the head but looks like ill probably have to... Ugh

KissMyTushZ28

iTrader: (4)

Damn.

Rocktagon

iTrader: (1)

Did your cam make it out of that ok?

therabidweasel

iTrader: (5)

If you can put 50ish pounds of weight on the pushrodyou can check to see if the plunger depresses over the course of 30 seconds or less. I believe spec is something like 35 to 125 seconds with the lifter full of leakdown fluid, which is lower viscosity than oil. If it does, the check valve is blown and hadn't seized / collapsed yet. If it doesn't depress it is either seized or behaving normally for a lifter full of cold oil. You could have wiped out a roller and the lost roller is the reason for the height difference...that destroys the cam.

Did you hear any scraping while it was running? It's not too loud in my experience, much more subtle than I'd expect...but it sounds deep I. The motor
.
You can also check the plug magnet, if you are taking out the cam it will have metal on it, see my thread a little below here for pictures 3 oil changes and 600 mileslater.

Rocktagon

iTrader: (1)

I did not hear any scraping while it was running however there was some super fine metal sludge on the oil plug but that oil had been in their a while. I'm actually just gonna pull the whole motor out this time. It will be much easier to work on plus ill finally be able to get to that damn rear main seal that's been slowly leaking.
Last time I took out the cam I had driven it for a while with a bad lifter, at least this time I caught it immediately so fingers crossed..

chevybayboy

iTrader: (6)

It had a small small nic on it my buddy bought it from me took it somewhere to get fixed he hasn't had a prob with it... I upgraded to bigger cam after that